The 1979 Daytona 500, the 21st annual running of the event, was the second race of the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season.

On the final lap, race leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison collided with each other on the backstretch.

The wreck allowed Richard Petty, at the time of the crash over one-half lap behind the leaders, to claim his sixth Daytona 500 win.

As Petty made his way to Victory Lane to celebrate, a fight erupted between Yarborough, Donnie Allison and his brother, Bobby, at the site of the backstretch wreck.

[3][4] Races were shown on television, but the Indianapolis 500, for example, was broadcast on tape delay later in the evening on the day it was run in this era and usually in edited form.

Ken Squier and David Hobbs were the booth announcers with Ned Jarrett and Brock Yates[5] in the pits for that race, while other angles, such as an interview with race grand marshall Ben Gazzara and NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr., were handled by Marianne Bunch-Phelps.

Baker won his first qualifying race, with Cale Yarborough, Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison and David Pearson finishing in the top five, with positions 2-5 starting on the inside of rows 2-5, respectively.

The rest of the cars starting on the outside of rows 3-5 were A. J. Foyt, Dick Brooks and rookie Dale Earnhardt, Sr. making his Daytona 500 debut.

Notable drivers who failed to advance from qualifying races or speed included USAC star Jim Hurtubise, French sports car ace Claude Ballot-Lena, Cup race winners James Hylton, Morgan Shepherd and future NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott.

The first 15 laps of the 200-lap race were run under green and yellow flag conditions to help dry the track from rain the previous night.

His team had made some minor welding repairs before the race, and it was thought the primary ignition control box had been damaged as the engine was misfiring.

During attempts to diagnose and repair the problem, the team switched to the backup box and replaced much of the ignition system to no avail.

Donnie raced to unlap himself and made his lap up when Bonnett blew a tire and spun in traffic.

Other contenders were eliminated, as Bobby felt multiple laps behind, Harry Gant crashed, Earnhardt over-revved his engine leaving the pits and broke a rocker arm and valve spring, Parsons' car overheated, and Scott slid through his pits unable to stop when he hit a puddle of water from Parsons' overheating engine.

Past the halfway point, Donnie assumed the lead, but Yarborough used more caution flags to make up his lost laps.

Allison took the white flag and was leading the race on the final lap with Yarborough drafting him tightly.

As both drivers tried to maintain control, their cars made contact three more times before locking together and crashing into the outside wall in turn three.

Petty, who was over half a lap behind both drivers before the incident, went on to win,[3] beating Waltrip by one car length.

After the wrecked cars of Donnie and Yarborough settled in the infield grass short of the finish line, the two drivers began to argue.

Bobby, who was one lap down at that point, stopped where the wreck was, offering Donnie a ride back to the garage.

With Allison and Yarborough wrecking near the end of the last lap, the television audience was mostly shown footage of Petty crossing the finish line to win the race.

Brief moments of the fight were seen on national television when the commentators and camera operators realized what was going on and switched to the scene.

"[7] In the aftermath, both Allison brothers and Yarborough were fined $6,000 for actions detrimental to stock car racing.

As per the penalty, the Allisons and Yarborough had to post a $5,000 bond which would be returned over the next several races provided good behavior.

The initial judgment that the wreck was Donnie's fault was amended to place blame equally on both him and Yarborough.

(The following is an excerpt from the CBS television coverage of the race) David Hobbs: "The white flag is out, one lap to go.

At this point, Squier sends information on-air to director-to-director Bob Fishman, at that time primarily known as director for The NFL Today and later in his career became the lead director for NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and figure skating on the network in addition to his NASCAR work, to assist him in finding the new leaders, Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip.

(This excerpt is from MRN radio's coverage of the event) Barney Hall: "White flag for Donnie Allison, they're back in turn one!"

Well, Barney Hall, Richard Petty, and the STP Oldsmobile is coming down, remember the reports here the wire services, late last evening?

Safety officials trying to jump in there and separate them as tempers have really flared after this amazing incident on the final lap coming into turn number three!!